Hell House by Richard Matheson
Hell House is a horror novel set in the ominous Belasco House in Maine, renowned for its dark history and hauntings. The story follows four characters who explore the house after it has been closed for thirty years, each driven by distinct motivations. Dr. Lionel Barrett, a physicist, seeks to prove or disprove the existence of an afterlife for a monetary reward, aiming to use his invention, the Reversor, to eliminate the house’s haunting through scientific means. Accompanying him are his wife Edith, who fears being alone, and two psychics: Florence Tanner, a Spiritualist minister who believes in the survival of personality after death, and Benjamin Franklin Fischer, a former gifted medium haunted by his past experiences in the house.
As the group navigates the terrifying environment, they confront their personal demons and the house’s malevolent presence. Barrett’s scientific approach initially seems effective, but the supernatural forces reemerge, leading to tragic outcomes. Ultimately, the narrative explores the intersection of belief and skepticism about life after death, with each character's unique perspective contributing to the unfolding events. The chilling story examines themes of fear, survival, and the enduring nature of evil within the haunted Belasco House.
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Hell House
First published: 1971
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—extrasensory powers
Time of work: 1970
Locale: Maine
The Plot
The isolated Belasco House in Maine, otherwise known as Hell House, provides the gothic setting and atmosphere of this novel. Four persons visit the haunted house after it has been closed for thirty years. One visitor, Dr. Lionel Barrett, a physicist, brings his wife Edith, whose main reason for being there is that she fears being alone even for a few days. Dr. Barrett undertakes the visit because a wealthy, aging publisher, Rudolph Deutsch, offered him $100,000 to find proof one way or another about survival after death.
Barrett not only needs the money for his retirement but also finds the idea of dealing with a haunted house intriguing because it gives him an opportunity to test a machine he invented. Theoretically, his machine, which he calls a Reversor, could help him find the definitive proof about an afterlife that Deutsch requires. Barrett plans to find this proof by using electromagnetic radiation to demagnetize the house, dissipate the resonant negative energy, and thus end, through scientific means, the haunting of the house.
Florence Tanner and Benjamin Franklin Fischer, both psychics, are the two other visitors, also commissioned by Deutsch. They bring different perspectives. Tanner comes from a Spiritualist background and serves as a minister of the Temple of Spiritual Harmony. Her financial reward could provide a fine new building for her congregation. Fischer, a man of forty-five, had been an extraordinarily gifted medium in his early years and does not come as a stranger to Hell House, as Belasco’s house came to be called in recognition of the former owners depravity. In fact, Fischer was the lone survivor of the second of two earlier attempts to investigate the haunted Belasco House. These investigations had resulted in the destruction of eight people through death, suicide, or insanity, and in the house being sealed off. Fischer himself has shunned any connection with parapsychology since his escape from the house, and since then he has led an aimless life. Despite his belief that the house intends to kill him and the other visitors, he is ready to face whatever he must to overcome his personal demons.
Each visitor to Hell House brings a distinctive point of view that proves important to the resolution. Although Barrett does not believe that personalities survive death, he does believe that psychic phenomena exist as manifestations of the human subconscious. Tanner firmly believes that personality survives after death.
Barrett’s attempt to demagnetize the house with his electromagnetic radiation machine at first appears to rid it of all remnants of psychic energy and to break the curse pervading it. Terror returns, however, as subsequent events lead to Barrett’s mysterious but violent death. Events also confirm Tanner’s belief that personality survives after death. She dies because Belasco’s surviving energy reasserts itself with enough evil and power to possess and then to destroy her.
Fischer recognizes that Barrett and Tanner each had been partially correct and realizes that one evil entity created what had seemed to be multiple hauntings. Fischer again risks being destroyed by Belasco’s malign presence as he attempts to solve the puzzle of the evil remaining within the house. Tanner’s surviving personality guides him to discover a lead shield that had protected Belasco’s ego from the radiation. Edith Barrett and Fischer realize that Belasco no longer has the power to destroy them. Each of them has faced personal demons and survived the experience.